Kremlin towers. The Terem Palace of the Moscow Kremlin is a miracle of Russian architecture of the 17th century. Purpose of the Terem Palace
Through the works of architects of the 17th century, Moscow and Rus' were transformed... mamlas wrote in May 19th, 2016
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The rise of Russian architecture
Architects and craftsmen of pre-Petrine Rus' / Creators / Article 2007
To this day in Moscow and some other ancient Russian cities and monasteries, outlandish buildings of the 17th century have been preserved, in which Russian art was not yet too susceptible to foreign influence. In that distant pre-Petrine age, the rise of Russian architecture became especially noticeable. Also in "Creators"
The new Izmailovo Kremlin, built in the style of “pre-Petrine” Moscow
Under Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich and his son Alexei, wonderful “stone and wooden craftsmen” worked - Bazhen Ogurtsov, Trefil Sharutin, Semyon Petrov, Averky Mokeev, Ivan Belozer, Pavel Potekhin, Osi Startsev, Yakov Bukhvostov and many others. Through their labors, the wooden and stone architecture of pre-Petrine Rus' reached its peak. Terem Palace in the Kremlin
At first, after the destructive Time of Troubles, it was only about recreating the destroyed and dilapidated buildings of the Kremlin. Some of them were repaired already in 1613, on the day of the crowning of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov. Then new large works began - in 1625, to install a clock over the Frolovskaya (now Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin), a three-tiered top was built under the “supervision” of the stone workers of the apprentice Bazhen Ogurtsov and his comrades Stepan Osipovich Karaulov and Grigory Zagryazhsky. The “English land watch and water platoon master” Christopher Galovey took part in the design and construction of the tent and clock.
Terem Palace in the Kremlin
Soon a new, even larger-scale construction began in the Kremlin. Frequent fires first half XVII centuries continued to destroy the wooden buildings of Moscow, not sparing the splendor of the Kremlin towers. It was then that it was decided to build a new stone royal palace. It has become an undoubted masterpiece - the Terem Palace in the Kremlin, which has survived to this day, although in a greatly altered form. It was built in 1635-1636 by Bazhen Ogurtsov, Antip Konstantinov, Trefil Sharutin and Larion Ushakov. The palace was a three-story building. The foundation of the palace was the basements with open galleries, erected in 1499-1508 by the architect Aleviz Fryazin, and the Workshop Chambers of the 16th century, the time of Ivan the Terrible, standing on these basements.
Three floors of the Terem Palace were erected on the leveled vaults of the middle part of the Workshop Chambers.
It was crowned by a high “teremok”, the famous “top” with an open terrace located around it – the “gulbische”. The gilded gable roof and two belts of azure tiled cornices, stone carvings, and the richly decorated front Golden Porch gave the palace an elegant, fairy-tale look typical of that time. The palace is distinguished by an abundance of carved stone patterns, floral patterns, images of birds and animals on the white stone frames of windows and portals. The ceilings of the palace are relatively low. The very thick walls are also densely painted with floral and floral patterns. In the chambers there are tiled stoves, which also decorate the premises. The layout of the rooms clearly resembles the interior of a Russian hut, which is based on a cage (a log frame, usually with three windows along the facade). Here, in the “Golden-Domed Teremka,” located above the tsar’s personal chambers, there was a hall where the princes played and the Boyar Duma met. The unique Golden Tsarina's Chamber, rooms for the king with a bedchamber, antechamber, throne room and antechamber, have been preserved. Through a system of covered passages, galleries and other extensions, the palace was connected to other buildings - cathedrals, the patriarch's chambers, and service premises.
Simultaneously with the construction of the Terem Palace in 1635, above the Small Golden Chamber, at the level of the Front Stone Courtyard, the same craftsmen erected the Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands (later Verkhospassky Cathedral), with the chapel of John of Belgorod (now John the Baptist). Soon after this, Antip Konstantinov built a unique temple of Hodegetria of Smolensk in the Vyazemsky St. John the Baptist Monastery, which had three stone tent-tops located in one row.
"The eighth wonder of the world"
An exemplary building of the 17th century, made of traditional wooden structures, was the palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow. It was built in 1667-1678 by an artel under the leadership of the headman Semyon Petrov and the archer Ivan Mikhailov, who worked as a carpenter, in the form of several towers connected by bizarre passages. Unfortunately, the palace itself has not survived - after standing for about 100 years, it became very dilapidated and was dismantled in 1768, but its images in engravings and enthusiastic descriptions of contemporaries have been preserved.
Palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow
The palace consisted of 270 rooms with 3,000 windows and small windows. From the outside it looked like a whole town with turrets, scaly roofs, “gulbishchi”, kokoshniks, porches with twisted columns. Different parts of the palace were built in an individual manner; they did not resemble each other. The volumes, shapes of coverings, and decorative techniques were varied. All this gave a wonderful picturesqueness to the building. Master carvers Klim Mikhailov, David Pavlov, Andrey Ivanov and Gerasim Akulov worked on this unprecedented architectural decoration with its openwork carvings under the guidance of Elder Arseny. Kolomna Palace was called "the eighth wonder of the world." Simeon of Polotsk praised the beauty of this palace, comparing it with the Temple of Solomon. Jacob Reitenfels in his book “Tales of the Most Serene Duke of Tuscany Cosmas the Third about Muscovy,” published in Padua in 1680, called the palace of Alexei Mikhailovich “a toy just taken out of a box.” In 1681 it was partially rebuilt by Savva Dementiev.
In addition to the Kremlin one, another famous Moscow tower has reached us, built in 1693–1694 by Osip Dmitrievich Startsev and Larion Kovalev. Teremok is located in the Krutitsky courtyard and is a real gem architecture. The Krutitsa courtyard has been known since the end of the 13th century; it was located on the high bank of the Moscow River, on Krutitsy. The buildings that have survived to this day appeared at the beginning of the 17th century.
The most well preserved are the main Holy Gates with the famous Gate Tower. Its front side was entirely covered with tiles. The gate, decorated with Teremko, led to the metropolitan’s garden, which was called heavenly.
Special mention should be made about the main builder of the Krutitsky Teremok.
Osip Startsev developed special techniques for stone decoration. “Cock combs”, which he placed on the fence of the yard of boyar I.M. Yazykov on Bolshaya Nikitskaya, were subsequently widely used by many Russian architects.
Another innovation that also became part of the construction practice of that era was the circular open walkway designed by Startsev in the Church of the Resurrection on Presnya. In 1684, Startsev remodeled the originally Gothic windows of the Faceted Chamber, decorating them with white stone frames with elegant columns entwined with vines, a technique he repeated in his work on the Krutitsky Tower.
One big thing was followed by another - in 1685 Osip Startsev completed the construction of the Refectory Chamber in the Simonov Monastery, which had begun in 1677 by apprentice Parfen Potapov.
Startsev's other works are also known: in 1676, he supervised the tiling of the State Yard. Since 1681, he was involved in the reconstruction of the tower churches and the construction of the Verkhospassky Cathedral, the dismantling of the cookhouses of the Kormovy, Khlebny, Sytny courtyards, and the restructuring of the Prikaz Grand Palace. In the 1690s, he rebuilt the chambers of the Ambassadorial and Little Russian orders.
Another famous architect Averky Mokeev built the Patriarchal Chambers in the Moscow Kremlin (1643-1655), a number of buildings of the Valdai Monastery (1650s) and, finally, the Resurrection Cathedral of the New Jerusalem Monastery (1656-1685) on the Istra River near Moscow - the largest building in church architecture of that era. Another Moscow master, Ivan Belozer, helped him bring the grandiose plan of Patriarch Nikon to life. The architects were given the difficult task of creating a monastery on Russian soil, the main cathedral of which would reproduce in plan the Church of the Resurrection of the Lord in Jerusalem. In the course of their work, Mokeev and Belozer used an exact model and drawings of the main Christian shrine and successfully completed an honorable and complex patriarchal order.
The churches erected by Pavel Sidorovich Potekhin are very interesting: the Trinity Church in the village of Ostankino near Moscow (1678-1693), the Church of St. Nicholas in Khamovniki (1679), the Church of St. Cosma and Damian in Sadovniki (1657-1662). ). In the Makarievo-Zheltovodsky monastery, Potekhin builds the Holy Gate and the gate church of the Archangel Michael. His famous artel employed 93 craftsmen, among whom were not only masons, but also stone and wood carvers, carpenters, blacksmiths, and even icon painters and gilders. All of them were professionals of the highest class, but each of them could, if necessary, replace each other.
Moscow Baroque
At the end of the 17th century, noticeable changes took place in Russian architecture, as a result of which a new direction was established in architecture, known as the “Moscow (or “Naryshkin”) baroque.” A classic example of construction of this style is the Church of the Intercession in Fili (1693-1694), created by order of the uncle of Tsar Peter I Lev Kirillovich Naryshkin, presumably by Yakov Grigorievich Bukhvostov. Not inferior to it in beauty is the Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands (1693-1697) in Ubory near Moscow, the builder of which was undoubtedly the same Yakov Bukhvostov. The temple was built by him “like the bells,” that is, the upper tier high temple served at the same time as a belfry.
Church of the Intercession in Fili
Yakov Bukhvostov, an outstanding architect, came from serfs and was a native of the village of Nikolskoye-Sverchkovo, Dmitrovsky district, now located in the Klinsky district of the Moscow region. His first major work was the construction of stone walls and towers of the New Jerusalem Resurrection Monastery (1690-1694), which replaced the original wooden fortifications of this monastery. The length of the walls reaches 930 meters, their height currently ranges from 9 to 11 meters. On the inside of the walls, a semi-circular open arcade was built, above which a covered military passage, fenced with a parapet, ran along the entire perimeter of the walls. The Gate Church of the Entrance to Jerusalem was built above the main entrance to the monastery. At its base there is a central passage covered with an arch and two side passages. In my own way appearance she reminded famous temple in Fili in Moscow. An interesting and rare feature of the gate church was the colored tiled floor. Large square floor slabs formed an unusual geometric color pattern, adding elegance and color to the interior of the temple.
The church was tall and slender. However, during its existence it was rebuilt, and its original decorative decoration, characteristic of the Russian Baroque of the late 17th century, was not preserved.
Bukhvostov also built the Assumption Cathedral in Ryazan (1693-1699). When designing it, the architect retained the scheme dating back to Aristotle Fioravanti, but placed the temple building on a basement gallery and decorated it with three tiers of elegant windows. Thus, Bukhvostov was the first in cathedral architecture to use the division of facades into tiers using rows of windows. Thanks to this, the Assumption Cathedral turned out to be very bright. During his stay in Ryazan, Bukhvostov erected stone barns and other outbuildings for the local metropolitan, as well as several parish churches that have not survived to this day. The last of famous buildings Bukhvostov became the Church of the Deposition of the Robe on Donskaya Street in Moscow (1701-1708). Here the architect does not use the typical Baroque tiered form of “octagon on a quadrangle”; he builds the church in the form of a simple quadrangle, the prototype of which was the wooden “cage” churches Ancient Rus'. There is an assumption that the Trinity Church in Troitsky-Lykovo and the Church of the Intercession in Fili were also built by Yakov Bukhvostov.
It has long been noted that Bukhvostov’s churches were not rebuilt - their form was so perfect.
Through the works of architects of the 17th century, Moscow was transformed. Let us refer to the opinion of Paul of Aleppo, secretary of the Antiochian Patriarch Macarius, who visited the Russian capital at that time. About the buildings of Moscow, Pavel Aleppo wrote: “... we marveled at their beauty, decoration, strength, architecture, grace, many icons and carved columns on the sides of the windows, at the height of the floors, as if they were fortresses, at their huge towers, at abundant painting with multi-colored paints outside and inside...”
Some of this beauty has survived to this day. Will it be preserved, will it not be lost behind the strange-looking new high-rise buildings scraping the sky?..
(Russian: Terem Palace; English: Terem Palace)
Opening hours: The Terem Palace is closed to the public. It is part of the Grand Kremlin Palace and is the Presidential Residence Russian Federation. Excursions to the Terem Palace are usually carried out as part of excursions to the Grand Kremlin Palace, which requires special permission from the Kremlin commandant’s office.
The Terem Palace is one of the most picturesque buildings of the Moscow Kremlin; it seems to have stepped out of the pages of Russian fairy tales. The style of this five-story building, richly decorated with white stone carvings, represents a colorful mixture of elements of Italian, Russian and Oriental architecture. The tiered construction of the volume of the new building, with open walkways, platforms, porches and stairs, reflected the traditional features of Russian wooden architecture. The lower part of the palace, built in 1487, originally housed the sovereign's workshop. The two upper tiers of the tower, constituting the fourth and fifth floors, were erected in 1635 - 1636 by Russian architects Bazhen Ogurtsov, Antip Konstantinov, Trifon Sharutin and Larion Ushakov.
They erected a large structure, designed for an important place in the architectural panorama of the Kremlin. The Terem Palace had a gilded roof with golden burrs. At that time, the practice of constructing a large multi-story building in the form of a single block was not known. Therefore, the floors, as it were, were placed on top of each other, separated by cornices - belts, and differed, increasingly decreasing in size: this, apparently, showed the influence of wooden architecture, the most widespread in the country. The plan of the palace, as well as the character of its chambers, resembles the usual forms of wooden buildings: the chambers, although intended for the personal use of the king, are small in size and, as it were, placed next to each other, like log cabins of cages.
The extraordinary picturesqueness and elegance of the new palace is created not only due to the complex space-planning design of the building, but also due to the rich decorative design of its facades. Carved and majolica cornices, profiled pilasters between windows, complex white stone frames of openings with hanging weights and triangular gables, covered with carved ornaments, tiles and carvings, gilded roofing - all this is harmoniously combined with the polychrome coloring of the walls and white stone parts, restored during the restoration of the Terems in 1966-1969. A special feature of the external decoration of the Terem Palace are the rich cornices of the two upper floors, made of colored tiles, which also decorate the widths of the parapets of the walkways. Overall, the palace gives the impression of a precious piece of jewelry.
The Terem Palace, built of brick, has window casings and door portals made of white stone, covered with ornamental carvings with patterns of herbs, animals and birds, painted in bright colors. Window trims, window sills and portals are also decorated with carvings. The windows contain colored glass from the 19th and 20th centuries. In the old days there was multi-colored mica in the windows. The multi-colored glass, tiled stoves and painted walls emanate a sense of distant, fairy-tale antiquity.
Probably, it was from the Terem Palace that the use of rich decorative ornamental forms on the facades of buildings began. Particular attention was paid to the entrance portals: they have intricately carved archivolts on the inside of the opening.
From the middle of the 17th century, the palace became the permanent home of the Russian tsars. Each floor had its own purpose and its own lifestyle. The interior layout of the palace is extremely simple: all rooms are almost the same size, with three windows each facing south, following one after another. In the sequential arrangement of rooms there is still no principle of enfilading, characteristic of the palace architecture of subsequent times, since the doorways of adjacent rooms are not located on the same axis.
Each room of the Terem Palace performed a specific role. The ground floor premises were used for domestic purposes. They contained rooms for household purposes, as well as rooms where there were supplies of water and candles, and preparations of vegetables and pickles.
The queen's workshops were located on the ground floor. The production of all types of clothing, linen and other types of household items for the royal family was concentrated here. Here, court embroiderers decorated clothes with silk, gold embroidery and pearls.
On the second floor there was the king's personal bath. Water was supplied here using a pump from water tower. A spiral staircase led from the bathhouse to the royal bedroom. The rooms located on this floor were often rebuilt and their purpose changed accordingly. In the 19th century, an archive was located here, which housed the most important state papers.
On the third floor there were premises that included, in fact, the chambers of the royal family, while living in the Terem Palace; the rest of the time the family lived in a wooden palace, which, according to contemporaries, was considered more beneficial for health.
The fourth floor, or mezzanine, was sometimes called the golden-topped floor because the roof was covered with gold and silver sheets and painted in different colors. In a spacious, well-lit room with a golden top, attention is drawn to wall paintings made in the middle of the last century in the so-called “Russian” style. The Entrance Hall, Living Room, Altar Room, Bedchamber and Prayer Room amaze the imagination with the fabulous colors of their decoration.
The carved white stone staircase of the palace, elegantly decorated with sculptures of lions with shields, leads to the Golden (Red) Porch. The carved white stone portal of the Porch is the main entrance to the front rooms of the palace. Its pillars are intercepted by belts, and decorative weights hang in the spans of the arches.
One of the passages of the Golden Porch is decorated with the famous Golden Lattice - a rare, perfect work of Russian blacksmiths. Its strongly twisted spirals contain gilded fantastic birds. A golden lattice separates the landing from the stairs. It was believed to be made from copper money taken out of circulation after the Copper Riot. But modern research showed that the grate was forged from iron.
The first room of the fourth floor is called the Front or Passage Entrance, has low closed vaults with lancet windows, carved wooden window sills and tiled stoves. Previously, in this room, in the morning, the boyars gathered, waiting for the tsar to come out.
Following the vestibule is the Living Room (Dumnaya Room), where “the sitting of the Tsar and the Boyars” took place, and, on rare occasions, as a sign of special favor, foreign ambassadors were received here.
Perhaps the most beautiful front room is the Throne Room, or the Royal Office. This room served as a small throne room; in the “red” corner of the room, there is still a royal chair covered in velvet.
In the 17th century, the Throne Room was the most beautiful and most inaccessible room in the entire palace. Only in the mornings, the boyars closest to the king entered it to “beat with their brows.” All the furniture in the room is in the style of the 17th century. Benches and chairs are upholstered in Venetian velvet. Once upon a time, cabinets and shelves were filled with gold and silver dishes, which are now kept in the Armory.
The middle window of the room, decorated from the façade with a carved white stone casing, was called Petition. A box was lowered from it, where everyone could add a letter of petition to the king. The common people called this box Long, since petitions lay here for a long time, unread by anyone. This is where the saying comes from: “Don’t put things off.”
Following the Throne Room is the Bedchamber. It contains a carved wooden four-poster bed made in the style of the 17th century. This room, like all the previous ones, belonged only to the male half of the royal family. The chambers of the queens and princesses were located in a different place and have not survived to this day.
From the Bedchamber, a side door leads to a small room - the Prayer Room, where the king usually prayed in the evening and in the morning. Here on the wall hang gilded icon cases with crosses and icons of the 16th - 17th centuries.
The northern wing housed utility rooms and a narrow corridor. According to legend, shows of the most beautiful girls, among whom the king had to choose his bride. He had to walk down the corridor three times and hand the towel to the lucky chosen one.
On the fifth floor were the prince’s chambers, with the so-called “Lookout Tower”. Tsarevich Peter Alekseevich, the future Emperor Peter the Great, who was born right there in the palace on the night of May 30, 1672, was brought up here.
Terem Palace is a unique architectural monument that has survived to this day. The unique original Russian style of decoration, the amazing combination of colors, luxury and simultaneous lightness makes this palace a unique work of art.
Russia is the most extraordinary and amazing country in the world. This is not a formula of official patriotism, this is the absolute truth. Unusual because it is infinitely varied. Amazing because it is always unpredictable. The gentle and gentle spring sun drowns in a deadly snowstorm in ten minutes, and a bright triple rainbow shines after the flying away black cloud. Tundras are combined with desert dunes, swampy taiga gives way to monsoon forests, and vast plains smoothly turn into equally boundless mountain ranges. The greatest rivers of Eurasia carry their waters through Russia - no other country in the world has such an abundance of great flowing waters. , Ob, Irtysh, Yenisei, Amur... And largest lakes world - salty Caspian and fresh. And the longest steppes in the world - from the banks of the Donets to the Amur region. Matching the geographical abundance is the diversity of peoples, their customs, religions, and cultures. Nenets reindeer herders place their tents next to comfortable high-rise buildings. Tuvans and Buryats roam with herds and yurts along federal highways. In the Kazan Kremlin there is a large new mosque adjacent to the ancient Orthodox Cathedral; in the city of Kyzyl, a Buddhist suburgan whitens against the background of a golden-domed church, and not far from them the breeze flutters colorful ribbons at the entrance to a shaman’s yurt...
Russia is a country where you won’t get bored. Everything is full of surprises. The beautiful asphalt highway suddenly gives way to a broken dirt road, which disappears into an impassable swamp. It sometimes takes three times longer to cover the last 30 kilometers of the journey than the previous ten thousand. And the most unexpected thing in this mysterious country is the people. Those who know how to live in the most difficult, even impossible natural conditions: in the mosquito-infested taiga, in the waterless steppe, in the highlands and in flooded valleys, in 50-degree heat and 60-degree frost... Those who have learned to survive, I note, by the way, are under the yoke of all sorts of authorities, none of which have ever been to them merciful... Who created in these swamps, forests, steppes and mountains a unique culture, or rather, many unique cultures. Those who created great history the Russian state - a history that also consists of countless great, heroic and tragic stories.
Architectural monuments are living witnesses of the historical past, the creation of famous, and in the vast majority of cases unknown, Russians. The architectural wealth of Russia is great and diverse. It reveals the beauty of the Russian land, the ingenuity of the mind of its people, and the might of the state, but most importantly, the greatness of the human spirit. Russia was built over a thousand years in the most difficult conditions imaginable. Among the harsh and meager nature, in continuous external wars and internal struggles. Everything great that was erected on Russian soil was erected by the power of faith - faith in the truth, in a bright future, in God. Therefore, in architectural monuments, with all their constructive, functional and ideological diversity, there is general beginning- striving from earth to heaven, from darkness to light.
It is simply impossible to tell in one book about all the wonderful places in Russia - natural, historical, poetic, industrial, memorial. Twenty such books would not be enough for this. The publishers and I decided: I will write only about those places where I have been, which I have seen with my own eyes. That's why there's no smoke in our publication Klyuchevskaya Sopka, the islands do not rise from the Pacific waters Kuril ridge, the white cover does not sparkle... I have not been to these and many other places, I dream of visiting and writing about them. Many wonderful historical and cultural monuments were not included in the book. St. George's Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky and St. Sophia Cathedral in Vologda, the Kremlins of Tula and Kolomna, the Vorobyovo estates in Kaluga and Maryino in Kursk region, the buildings of the local history museum in Irkutsk and the drama theater in Samara, the Saratov Conservatory and the “City House” in Khabarovsk... The list is endless.
In addition, we decided not to get carried away with the story about big cities, about megacities with a population of millions (limiting ourselves to a selective review of the architectural riches of Moscow and St. Petersburg), and to give preference to distant Russia, living away from the wide public roads and from the noise of business and industrial centers.
The first stone residential chambers in the royal palace, later called the Terem Palace, were built in 1635-1636. for Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich of stone craftsmen Bazhen Ogurtsov, Antip Konstantinov, Trefil Sharutin and Larion Ushakov. The basis for the newly erected three-story chambers was the lower tier of the northern part of the palace, built by Aleviz in 1499-1508, and those built above it in the second half of the 16th century. Workshop chambers.
The tiered construction of the volume of the new building with open walkways, platforms, porches and stairs reflected the traditional features of Russian wooden architecture. Nevertheless, this was a new type of multi-storey stone residential building for its time, in which the enfilade construction of interior spaces, which became characteristic of later palaces, was already emerging.
Three galleries surrounded the palace in tiers: the lower Boyarskaya platform, or Bed porch, was located at the level of the ceiling of the Aleviz basement, where the Vladimir Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace now stands. From this level, an open staircase led to the Front Stone Courtyard, built on top of the leveled vaults of the Workshop Chambers, on which the three floors of the Terem Palace were actually built. The exit to the middle walkway was later closed by a Golden Grille, representing a unique example of blacksmithing. WITH east side There was a front golden porch along which one ascended to the second floor into the king’s living quarters. The last tier of the built chambers - the golden-domed Teremok, located in the center of the building, is surrounded by a third platform - the Upper Stone Courtyard.
The extraordinary picturesqueness and elegance of the new palace is created not only due to the complex space-planning design of the building, but also due to the rich decorative design of its facades. Profiled pilasters between the windows, carved and majolica cornices, complex white stone frames of openings with hanging weights and triangular pediments, covered with carved ornaments, tiles and carvings in the flaps of the walkway parapets, gilded roofing - all this is harmoniously combined with the polychrome coloring of the walls and white stone details, restored during restoration of Terems in 1966-1969. Overall, the palace gives the impression of a precious piece of jewelry.
The original interior decoration of the chambers, with the exception of individual fragments, has not been preserved and was made again under the direction of the artist F.G. Solntsev in the style of the 17th century. These works were carried out in 1836-1837. Subsequently, during the construction of the Grand Kremlin Palace ancient monument was included in the new complex of palace buildings.
Currently, the Terem Palace as part of the Grand Kremlin Palace is the Residence of the President of the Russian Federation.
Photo: Teremny Palace of the Kremlin and Verkhospassky Cathedral
Photo and description
The first royal chambers made of stone, which appeared on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin at the beginning of the 17th century, were built by order of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich and called the Terem Palace. The royal residence of the Terem Palace and the Verkhospassky Cathedral, which since 1636 has been part of the complex of house churches of the Russian tsars, are part of architectural ensemble Grand Kremlin Palace.
Grand Ducal Chambers above Borovitsky Hill
The great Moscow princes always settled on high place. Their residences were built over Borovitsky Hill, from where there were magnificent views of the surrounding area. The first to build a palace on a hill Ivan Kalita. Later, mansions were erected on the edge of Borovitsky Hill for Sofia Vitovtna, wife of the Grand Duke of Moscow and Vladimir Vasily I.
At the end of the 15th century Ivan III undertook a global reconstruction of the Kremlin buildings. Under him, the old walls, built of white stone, were torn down and new brick walls began to be built. Several new structures were built on the territory of the Kremlin, which today are included in the lists of the most important attractions of Moscow. Stone residential buildings also began to be erected at this time, and in the Kremlin, in addition to the Assumption Cathedral, the Faceted Chamber and the Archangel Cathedral, buildings of the Sovereign's Court appeared at the end of the 15th century. Their project belonged to Aleviz Fryazin, an Italian who worked for the great Moscow princes for a long time.
Construction of the Terem Palace
The Time of Troubles, which devastated the Russian land, brought a lot of destruction to Moscow. By 1630, the Tsar's Kremlin palace had fallen into disrepair and was virtually abandoned. The first tsar of the Romanov family Mikhail Fedorovich ordered the construction of new chambers. Subsequently, the royal stone residence received the name Terem Palace.
Architects Bazhen Ogurtsov, Antip Konstantinov and Trefil Sharutin We used many new technologies in our work. "Iron ties" allowed them to strengthen the walls, leaving them quite thin. Innovations contributed to an increase in the internal area of the structure, which was a very progressive trend in ancient Russian stone architecture.
The walls and foundation remaining from the chambers of Ivan III were taken as the basis of the Terem Palace. The two tiers of the old building were expanded with three new ones, and a tower appeared at the very top. The interiors were decorated richly and whimsically. The roof of the mansion was painted with silver paints and gold leaf, the window openings were covered with mica translucent glass, and the walls and ceilings of the chambers were painted by an artel of icon painters, which was led by Simon Ushakov– a highly developed and talented artist, technically far ahead of his time.
The new royal mansions looked like a very large and even monumental structure. The architect skillfully combined in it the features of ancient Russian classics and elements of Italian architecture:
- The palace is mostly built from bricks, but the platbands, portals, parapets and pilasters are made of white stone.
- Used in decorative decoration traditional techniques of Russian stone architecture– tiled tiles on the cornices of the fourth floor, ornamental stone wickerwork, carved window frames, flaps on the parapets of the walkways, pilasters in the walls between the windows and a gilded ridge on the roof.
- Tiered stepped design The building demonstrates the typical features of mansion buildings erected by ancient Russian architects. However, the internal rooms were arranged in the form enfilades, which is typical for the later period of Russian stone architecture.
- The palace was heated using a system ovens. Each oven was decorated glazed tiles different colors and shapes.
- Led to the state rooms golden porch, which connected the Verkhospasskaya platform and the second floor of the Terem Palace. The entrance, painted in gold, was crowned with a pyramidal tent.
The Terem Palace became one of the buildings of the Royal Court, which occupied a large territory and included many buildings, including the Faceted and Dining Chambers, the Bed Mansions of the Royal Family, the Embankment Chambers and several house churches.
What to see in the Terem Palace
Each of five floors The Terem Palace had its purpose. The three lower floors, located on the basements of the 16th century, served for economic needs. Supplies and food were stored here in the basements and storerooms, and jewelers, gold seamstresses, gunsmiths and lacemakers worked in the workshops.
Royal chambers located on the third and fourth floors. The first premises where the sovereign and members of his family found themselves were checkpoints canopy. They were covered with low arches, and the front room was illuminated by paired lancet windows. The entrance halls were heated by stoves decorated with tiles. In the living room, the tsar communicated with the boyars and sometimes received foreign ambassadors.
Golden Chamber was the most richly decorated room of the royal residence. The walls of the chamber were decorated with gold paintings, the vaults were painted with images of the Savior and saints, and the royal throne, which stood in Throne Chamber, was covered with velvet. The saying about the long box was born here. In the Golden or Throne Chamber there was a box where petitions were submitted. Since the petitions were considered for a very long time and reluctantly, the box began to be called “long”.
A unique painting in the form of ornamental patterns has been preserved on the walls of the room adjacent to the Golden Chamber. They called him pantry and stored dishes and cutlery in it.
IN royal bedchamber there is a bed made by skilled wood carvers and decorated with a canopy made of natural silk. The royal box was made in the 19th century, when one of the reconstructions of the residence took place.
On the top floor of the Terem Palace there is a stone attic, which was called Golden-domed tower. Its roof was covered with gilded sheets, which gave the attic its name. Meetings of the Boyar Duma were held in the Golden-Domed Tower. Adjacent to the tower lookout tower, in the windows of which antique colored glass has been preserved.
Verkhospassky Cathedral
The complex of house churches of the Moscow Kremlin includes Cathedral of the Holy Image, more often called Verkhospassky. The temple was built in the first half of the 17th century and is located above the Throne Palace Chamber on the upper tier of the Terem Palace on its male half. From the north side Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov ordered to build a small side church for Evdokia Lukyanova- his second wife and mother of the prince.
The architects who worked on the project and its implementation were well known in Rus'. Bazhen Ogurtsov, who led a team of builders and architects, had been working in the Moscow Kremlin for about ten years. He participated in the reconstruction of the Assumption Cathedral, erected a gunpowder warehouse, supervised the construction of an extension to the bell tower of Ivan the Great, but his main creation is called the Terem Palace and the Verkhospassky Cathedral with it.
In the 60s of the 17th century, a refectory, and on the flat roof of the lower chambers - porch, connecting the sovereign’s chambers with the cathedral. At the same time, the facades were painted, the five domes of the temple were gilded, and a few years later the walls inside the church were painted by icon painters led by Simon Ushakov. In 1670, a copper and gilded grille was installed to block the staircase from the royal chambers that led to the cathedral. The temple began to be called Savior behind the Golden Lattice.
In 1682, all the house churches of the Terem Palace were brought under a single roof. The complex was crowned with eleven domes with carved crosses. To strengthen the structure, the architects had to build an arch on wide pylons.
In the 18th-19th centuries, the temple was restored and renovated more than once. The reason for starting new work most often was fires. One of them, Trinity, damaged the iconostasis and had to be made anew. Large funds for the repair of the Verkhospassky Cathedral were allocated by the maid of honor Matrona Saltykova. Thanks to her, the altar frescoes were restored in the temple, new royal doors were made and the iconostasis was covered with frames with silver niello.
IN 1812 The French plundered many churches, and the Verkhospassky Cathedral was among the victims. Fortunately, we managed to evacuate the most valuable church utensils in advance, but a lot had to be restored.
The house temple at the Terem Palace in 1836. The order for the next restoration came from the sovereign Nicholas I. The construction of the Grand Kremlin Palace, which began next, also made some changes to the layout of the Terem Palace and Verkhospassky Cathedral. The staircase adjacent to the temple was dismantled, the Verkhospasskaya platform was blocked, and the Golden Lattice was inserted into new arched openings. The wall of the refectory facing west was rebuilt. Now it had three doors, each of which was decorated with decorative grilles, stylized in the 17th century.
The corner of the cathedral, damaged by artillery shelling during the armed revolt of 1917, was restored in 1920, but by that time the temple was already closed and since then no services have been held in it.
Iconostasis of the Savior behind the Golden Lattice
The author of the iconostasis of the Verkhospassky Cathedral is a cabinetmaker Dmitry Shiryaev, who skillfully carved it from wood in the 18th century. In the central part of the iconostasis there is a frame made of blackened silver, made in 1778 at the expense of maid of honor Saltykova.
The most valuable icons of the Verkhospassky Cathedral were painted by artists S. Kostromitin and L. Stepanov. They are located in the local row. Attracts special attention image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, surrounded in the margins by twenty separate compositions called hagiographic stamps.
In the chapel of the cathedral, consecrated in honor of John the Baptist, you can see ancient images painted in the 17th century. The most revered of them are icons of Our Lady of Smolensk and St. John the Baptist.